Forum Moderators: open
On my main machine, I currently use the motherboard's onboard graphics card for the display. I only have a standard 17" CRT screen. However, certain interesting applications such as Google Earth and window manager transparency options are only available if you have a 3D graphics card.
So what exactly is the advantage of buying a separate graphics card? Would I see any difference in terms of display quality in normal applications with my current screen? Are there recommended cards, and which critera should I consider if I choose to buy a graphics card?
I use Kubuntu Linux 6.06 as my operating system, I don't play games on the machine but I do photo editing and web development.
There are two 3D engines commonly used in Windows, DirectX and OpenGL. These will work, albeit slowly, on most older graphic cards. I imagine the situation is the same in Linux (but without DirectX, of course). However...
You may need more graphics memory. If memory is shared, this simply means you need to change a bios setting.
Onboard graphics often perform well at 3D stuff. A few years ago, I built a system for my nephew. I didn't expect the onboard graphics (SiS chipset) to be capable of running his games, but I figured I could add a dedicated graphics card if I needed to later - but I didn't have to because it worked fine.
Basically, test the software you want to use and then decide if you want/need a new graphics card.
Kaled.
A low end dedicated graphics card might also free up shared memory being used by the onboard graphics.
(I'm also running Dapper (Kubuntu) using a fanless graphics card based on an nvidia chipset which is probably more than I need! Would like to play games but haven't got the time!)
Can anybody else confirm whether editing of x configuration files is needed for the nvidia binary on Ubuntu? I cannot remember whether it was all through the package manager or whether I had to edit the driver name.
